Where to Now? Andy Rubin’s "Controversial Plan" for Essential Phone 2

The Essential Phone, prior to its release, had all the hallmarks of something special. It was the brainchild of the man that created Android, it had huge investor backing, and there were plenty of plans for a wider ecosystem.

Ballsy stuff, basically.

But the sales just weren’t there; not at launch, and not even 12 months later. The handset was effectively a flop, and a slew of poor reviews didn’t help in this context either.

So… how does one come back from this? How do you make a dent in a hyper-saturated space without a really strong brand?

Simple: you do something completely different…

Essential Phone 2 Is Unlike Anything You’ve Seen

First off, the Essential Phone 2 – as a direct follow-up to the Essential Phone PH-1 – is not happening. Instead, the company is working on a companion device, something like the device from the movie, Her.

It’ll be smaller, way smaller than normal phones, and you’ll need to talk to it in order to get things done.

According to Bloomberg, the new Essential phone will take care of your texts and emails on your behalf.

It’s also NOT a standalone phone either; no, this new device would act a companion device for your main phone. Rubin is apparently keen on “capturing people’s imagination” with something completely different.

The big idea here is simple enough: this will be a device that effectively works for you, taking care of what’s going on inside your phone and freeing you up to do other things.

How any of this will actually work remains to be seen…

All might become clear as early as CES 2019, however, which takes place in Q1 2019. I am honestly really interested in how this kind of device would work. Essential has always talked about the “ecosystem”, of making things easier, but I just can’t see how something like this would actually function in real-life.

But for now, this is essentially (pun intended) what we can expect:

Small Form Factor

Not Technically a Phone

Voice Activated AI

Ability To Complete Emails/Texts

Not A Phone Per Se

Intrigued? I certainly am; but I just have trouble seeing how Essential, with its poor market share and brand visibility, could pull something like this off?

I’m not saying it couldn’t. If it was as good as it sounds, then it could change everything. Kind of like Tesla did with cars. But that’s a big “if”, even when the father of Android is concerned…